The Rings and The

Lamp
By Tim Kelly
 Once, in the kingdom of the evil tyrant called Sultan, an old African magician
rode into the palace town, tired and weary from many travels. His quest was not a
pleasant one. Sultan had beheaded his older brother on false charges in order to acquire a
very powerful and mystical item, a genie of the ring. With it, Sultan tightened his iron
grasp on the honest people of his realm, growing fatter and crueler by the day.
Overexerted from his travels across the desert, The Magician noticed just in time
when a small dog ran into the street in front of his horse, its young owner racing after it.
The Magician pulled up on the reigns to his horse violently, causing them both to topple
down to the ground, missing the child by inches.
Another boy quickly rushed up to The Magician, apologizing for his little
brother’s folly and pleading for him to be punished in place of his young brother for any
wrong doings done to a noble. He reached down and helped The Magician to his feet.
The Magician looked down at the boys. The boy must think I am noble from my
many possessions, he thought as his eyes passed over his baggage strewn across the
street. The younger of the two boys had a look of fear as his eyes moved from the older
boy to The Magician and back again.
“What’s your name, boy?” The Magician asked addressing the older of the two.
“Aladdin, sir.”
The Magician thought a moment more, and decided that he needed help if he was
to reach his goals. His old body could hardly travel, let alone adventure through dungeons
to find the one force that could, without any chance of failure, defeat Sultan- The Genie
of the lamp!
“All I ask of you, Aladdin, is to do exactly what I say until I see fit to release you
from my service.”
Aladdin looked down at the small boy, then quickly snapped his head strait and
pledged. The Magician thanked him and set him to his first task of once again burdening
his horse and then leading him to his family’s home to rest.

The next day The Magician roused Aladdin before dawn had even started to send
pale streaks across the sky. The boy didn’t even grumble.
The magician couldn’t help but think fortune had smiled upon him when he found
Aladdin. As soon as The Magician told him they were going to leave the city that very
day and travel to the mountains that one could just see on the horizon, he packed up their
mounts and got all the necessary supplies. They set out in the morning light.
As they traveled Aladdin again and again proved his worth. He was an expert
bargainer and saved The Magician many gold pieces, as well as performing all of the
tasks that had to be done. It was not until they had traveled all day and the moon hung
high over head that they reached the valley The Magician was searching for. It lay
between two peaks, with a large circle of fig trees enclosed the clearing at its center.
“Listen to me Aladdin,” The Magician stated, “In a few moments you will see
things and know temptation few have ever even dreamed of or feared. You must not give
into temptation or fright, for these riches and horrors are cursed, and will bring a swift
death with one touch.’
With that The Magician set Aladdin to collect the dry limbs from the fig trees
surrounding them. Once this was done The Magician brought a great fire into existence at
the center of the trees with nothing but words of flame and heat. Aladdin watched,
amazed.
“Soon, a pathway will appear, Aladdin.” The Magician glanced over at the boy.
“Once you go were I send you, you must search for a lamp, which you must bring to me
at once. It will not be the most beautiful of the treasures, but you will know it when you
see it, for such is the magic of the lamp. Remember though, time is short, for the
pathway will only be open as long as the fire stays lit, and I can not keep it going
forever.”
Aladdin nodded and seemed to ready himself for the unknown. The Magician
took a small pouch from his robes and threw its contents into the fire. The effect was
instantaneous. The fire grew with a defining roar, burning green and throwing embers
threw the air. The ground trembled and rippled, shying away from the flames. As the
earth moved away from the flames to rise as a circular hill beyond the fig trees, stone
steps descending downwards, wrapping around the fire pit were uncovered. When the
trembling earth stilled the green fire pillar reached up towards the mountains peaks
engulfed the clearing in a sickly light. The Magician’s eyes fell on Aladdin. He stood
strait and tall, clearly terrified but to courageous to back down.
Again, I must thank my fortune for sending me this boy, The Magician thought,
smiling to himself. He nodded to Aladdin, sending him into the unknown. Aladdin moved
forward, climbing down the steps without so much as a backwards glance.

Time passed incredibly slowly for The Magician as he wondered what trails and
hardships his young friend was facing down in the dark. The flames had dwindled,
looking a ghost of the powerful torrent it had been hours ago. The pathway had shrank
with it, leaving less and less chance for Aladdin as time passed. The sun was starting to
rise, beams of light pushing through stacked clouds above the peaks.
Worry lined The Magician’s face as the seconds crawled. He wished he could help
his young friend, but instead played idly with a ring on his finger. He knew if he tried to
go and help Aladdin he would only slow and endanger him further, while any magical
attempts at aid would be voided by the lamp or scare Aladdin out of his wits.
“ If only my magic could ease the weariness of my bones,” The Magician stated
aloud,” then I could have left Aladdin and his brother in the safety of the city.”
But The Magician knew better. Any city were Sultan ruled was no safer than the
harshest trials. No doubt that if Sultan is not stopped, Aladdin and all of his friends will
either be forced into atrocities by being drafted or jailed for denying Sultan’s will.
His musings were interrupted by the sound of footsteps on stone. Aladdin seemed
to be coming up the steps at last! The Magician sprang to his feet to great the boy on his
triumphant return.
His excitement took on a horrific edge as his eyes saw the fire’s flames, dwindling
faster than before with little but embers still alight.
“Hurry, Aladdin!” The Magician yelled into the dark passageway. The stairs
narrowed with each moment, the fire no longer strong enough to hold the earth back from
its rightful place.
Aladdin appeared on the lowest visible step. “Quickly boy, quickly!” The
Magician pleaded.
 Then horror entered The Magician eyes as he saw Aladdin fall. He tripped over
the stone steps, and the sound of body on stone split the dawn. Aladdin’s hands reached
out from the stair way, one reaching for help and the other offering something… The
lamp!
The Magician threw caution to the winds and ran down to Aladdin. He reached
for Aladdin’s empty hand, grabbing it and pulling Aladdin to his feet. Supporting him the
best he could, The Magician dragged his injured companion to the mouth of the ever
narrowing stairs, making sure Aladdin still held tight to the lamp. Before The Magician’s
first step onto the grass of the clearing, a crackle of mad laughter broke from Aladdin’s
lips. With two quick steps, he was facing The Magician. Confused, The Magician stared
into his companions eyes. He didn’t even notice Aladdin’s arms reach out until they
pushed him with all their strength. The last thing The Magician saw as he tumble
backwards before the stairway closed was the boy, who a moment before had been his
greatest fortune, smiling.

Pain was the first thing The Magician knew when consciousness returned to him.
He starred into the darkness, spots dancing in front of his vision. He did not know how
long he had been lying there, but he had to find out. Tentatively he rose to his feet. He
reached into his robe and once again pulled out a pouch. Speaking words of night and
light he threw a handful of powder into the air.
The powder exploded into bright miniature suns floating in the air, orbiting The
Magician. He was in a barren corridor. It would seem that the traps are only active when
there is an opening, he thought to himself as he slowly made his way down the passage,
the stars spreading out in front of him.
After what seemed like forever, he came to a room sunk deeper into the ground. It
was circular and steps lined the walls down into the center of the room, where atop a dais
stood a pillar. Obviously, this was once the resting place of the lamp. He walked into the
room and sat down on the lowest step.
Once he had settled himself, he was ready to get the information he required. He
raised his hand with a ring on it. The circle of silver, nether of good quality or
craftsmanship, was what The Magician focused on now. He twisted the ring around his
finger three times.
Light shot out from the ring, not eerie or unsubstantial like the green fires had
been, but concentrated and solid looking. It drew shapes in the air, abstract and
indefinable at first, then they started to form a recognizable yet unbelievable figure.
A deafening voice disturbed the dead silence of the surrounding earth. “What does
my master wish of me for I, as a slave of the ring, must obey thee in all things.”
The voice came from a fierce and enormous Genie, who from its waist up resembled a
man yet shared the lower body and movements of a boa constrictor, his strong tail coiled
underneath him.
The Magician had already planed out what needed to be done. “Go from me,
Genie, with all haste. Return only when you have learned both how long I have been in
this cave and what evils Aladdin, curse his name, has brought with your elder brother, the
Genie of the lamp.”
 The Genie let out a hiss and nodded, disappearing in a flash of the same light he
was made from. The waiting that ensued was different that it had been beside the fire. It
was filled with nether hope or worry but a well practiced emotionless void. The Magician
needed to keep a level head, and it did not due to go ahead and give into rash speculation.
Instead The Magician amused himself by finding patterns in his orbiting lights. It was not
until after he knew the flight path of each one that the Genie returned.
“Master, I have found out all that you asked for.” The Genie’s voice still rang out
like a much to loud gong.
“Speak, and tell me of what you’ve gathered.” The Magician waited as the Genie
coiled itself around the dais.
“It appears that your meeting Aladdin was not by chance. Sultan had heard of you
travels and plots from his spies. He knew what you planned months before you stepped
foot in his city. Aladdin had been his most ambitious squire and pleaded to be allowed to
wait for you. Sultan set him to his post and commanded that when he saw you to do
whatever he could to allow himself to travel with you. Sultan wanted Aladdin to get the
lamp for him and dispose of you afterwards. You might also like to know that the family
of that housed you slept at while you were in the city did so not because they were
Aladdin’s family, but because they were threatened with death if the did not.”
The Magician rested his head in his hands. “Then all is lost, and I was a fool.
There is no way, by combat or otherwise, that we can defeat Sultan if he has Genies of
the ring and lamp!”
“That would be true, but Sultan overestimated Aladdin’s loyalty and
underestimated his ambition.”
The Magician looked up at this. “What happened?”
“Aladdin realized what he was carrying back to you when he was inside this
place. He decided that he would make a better ruler than Sultan, and so commanded the
Genie of the lamp to bury Sultan under the sands of the desert. He never knew that the
Sultan had a Genie.”
The Magician processed the new information. A smile started to show on his lined
face. “So while Sultan lays dead under the dunes, what is Aladdin doing?” The Magician
asked his servant.
“Aladdin lives in Sultan’s palaces and is even crueler than him. In the week that
you have been down here he has executed every person that he had ever had an ill
thought towards.” The Genie had by now wrapped himself entirely around the dais and
pedestal.
“Very well,” The Magician stated dryly. His mind was racing. If he could get hold
of his brother’s ring, then there might be a way to get Aladdin of the throne and take the
lamp. While his brother’s killer was dead, it was his fault for letting Aladdin lose upon
the lands. He would be the one to set it right. He looked up at his servant.
“Genie! Take me to the place where Sultans corpse lies!” As soon as the words
were spoken, he felt the blistering sun on his back and the sand under his feet. He looked
around and found he was in the deep desert atop a dune, with the Genie lying around it.
“Genie,” The Magician said, “uncover the body of Sultan for me to inspect!” The
sands at The Magician feet began to shift. They moved out among the desert in a violent
sandstorm, clinging to the sky on turbulent winds until the dune was no more and on the
flat ground next to The Magician lay Sultan, naught but bones, cloth, and jewelry.
 The Magician lowered himself to the ground. Passing over the ragged garments
and elegant chains, bands, and rings, he stopped once he found a ring like his, except this
one was made of gold. A smile brought even more lines to The Magician’s face. He
removed the golden circle from the evil man’s finger and place it in his, hearing it clink
as it made contact with his silver ring. Three turns later light erupted from the gold ring,
mimicking the actions of the first genie. The new Genie was also a man from the waist up
yet rested atop the tail of a king cobra, with his fingernails elongated resembling fangs.
Unlike his brother, this genie said nothing.
“Listen, my servants,” The Magician said to the Genies, “ take me to the Palace of
Aladdin. Once there you must disguise yourselves as snakes so that I can walk freely
around the palace as a snake charmer and give you orders at a moments notice.” The
Genies nodded, and The Magician found himself in a little alcove off a hall inside the
palace. He looked around and saw two snakes coiling themselves slowly around The
Magician’s shoulders.
He walked out into the corridor only to be stopped immediately by a large guard,
demanding to know what a performer thought they were doing roaming around the palace
when Master Aladdin wanted to be entertained.
The Magician bowed and apologized, silently scoffing at Aladdin’s new title. The
guard accepted this and made The Magician follow him to the throne room. The
extravagance of it made him stop. The walls were gold and marble, inlaid with more
jewels than were even in the treasury and covered with hangings of gold and silk. Pillars
of precious stones supported a domed and windowed ceiling, letting in streams of light. A
fine carpet ran from one end of the room to the other were it ended at a huge throne
adorned with lions, dragons, and other fierce creatures of stone. Similar statues lined the
walls, letting visitors know that absolute power was what they were about to come face to
face with.
Performers walked casually around the room, ranging from contortionists and
dancers to fire breathers and sword eaters. It was into this thrall that The Magician
entered once the guard had let him go. He made his way threw the packed room until he
could see the man sitting on the throne.
It was Aladdin alright, surrounded by lackeys and admirers, seeming much to
pleased with himself. On the arm of the throne was a flat surface, on which sat the lamp
He probably keeps it with him at all times, The Magician thought. He continued
to walk towards the throne, smiling and swinging his arms to the crowd as no to seem
out of place. His eyes, however, never left Aladdin. It was when he realized the way
Aladdin was so intensely focused on those around him that he realized what he had to
do. As long as Aladdin was not allowed to get to the lamp, this would be easy.
He whispered his orders down to his servants, and as snakes they set out to do his
bidding. Silently and almost invisibly they slid across the floor, approaching there mark
from both side of the throne. They slithered between the walls and hanging, the
partygoers oblivious to them.
The Magician’s first Genie, as a boa constrictor matching Aladdin’s cloths,
quickly slithered around his arms and chest, binding his arms to his sides and muting him
by crushing his chest. The Magician walked up the carpet until his eyes met Aladdin’s
eyes, full of shock and pain. The laughter of the crowd seemed to take on a familiar tone,
not noticing their leader condition. It mimicked the sound Aladdin had made when he
stole the lamp.
Aladdin finally recognized the figure striding towards him, and tried to scream
but could not. The Magician smiled, and gave a node to the king cobra now poised at
Aladdin’s neck. A scream from one of Aladdin’s admires alarmed the guards, but it was to
late. The Magician’s second genie had sunk its inch long fangs into Aladdin’s neck.
People were running away from there convulsing Master as the two genies burst
from there snake farces with The Magician’s orders. The Magician strolled up to casually
pluck up the lamp next to Aladdin but was thwarted when one of his fleeing lackeys
knocked it on to Aladdin’s lap, and out of the lamp came a burst of flame as the great
Genie of legend appeared. Nothing about the Genie was human. It was the largest being
The Magician had ever seen, a snake of unparallel horror wreathed in fire stretching itself
throughout the emptying hall. As The Magician’s Genies took care of the guards,
punishing them for the wrongs committed in the name of Aladdin, Aladdin himself tried
to move his broken body to scream an order to his servant to destroy The Magician and
heal its master. The magician rushed forward, and grabbed the lamp from the crushed
body of Aladdin, and ordered the great snake to eat his former master, doing unto him all
the pain he had brought others.
“For my master, it shall be done.” The deep voice sent chills down the spine of all
who could hear it.
The Magician looked into the bulging eyes of Aladdin as the great serpent
returned all the pain Aladdin had caused. It opened its gaping mouth and came down on
Aladdin, igniting him as the genie chewed. When it was done the Magician ordered the
genie of the lamp back to its prison. As he sat on the now unoccupied throne, no
satisfaction touched The Magician’s heart at Aladdin’s necessary end.
For the next month The Magician set about undoing the harms of Aladdin and
Sultan, for he felt he was responsible. His family had been the one to lead Sultan to his
power and he himself brought Aladdin strait to the lamp.
He had not once used the genie of the lamp since the end of Aladdin’s rule,
desiring no more power than he had to take on. What The Magician longed for was to
return home to Africa and what was left of his family. Day to day he brought people hope
by being just, but he never wanted to be their ruler.
One day, as The Magician was walking through the marketplace, flanked by his
Genies of the rings, he saw a boy. It was the same boy who had run out in front of his
horse that first day in the city. The boy remembered the magician, and like before, was
afraid.
Looking at the boy, The Magician sized him up. The boy did not shy away from
the glance despite his fear, his strength showing through his youth. A question entered
into The Magician mind.
“Boy, would you mind answering a question for me?”
The boy nodded, his eye’s never leaving The Magician’s.
“Why did you risk yourself to save that dog, the first day we met?”
The boy was quit for a moment. “Well sir,” he said, “I figured that it had done
nothing wrong, and as it couldn’t protect itself, I figured it needed someone to help it out
a little.”
 The Magician smiled and let out a load, confident laugh. “Boy, how would you
like to rule this city?” On the street, the people stopped what they were doing, dropping
baskets to the ground, staring.
“Sir?”
The Magician looked fondly at the boy. “That is the very thing this city needs. To
protect the innocent is what a ruler should strive for, unlike the self-indulgent tyrants of
the past.”
That was that. Within a fortnight the boy was on the throne, being educated by the
best, kindest minds The Magician could find. After The Sultan’s coronation, The
Magician pulled him aside. He presented a small package rapped tightly in silk.
“This is more power than any one man should have, and it is to you that I entrust
it. I have never called upon it myself, using it only so that others would not use it for
wrong, and I hope you will never have to.” With those last words of wisdom The
Magician bowed and walked away, down through the palace, its gardens, the city, and out
into the desert, his Genies trailing behind. After that day no one in the city ever saw or
heard of him again.
The Sultan ruled for many years, reigning peace within his kingdom. He never
once called on the genie of the lamp, nor did the long line of kings that ruled after him
until the lamp and its fabled genie faded into legend, then myth, until it was forgotten.